Mum's Army: Meet woman with six forces children, four fighting in Afghanistan

Military mum: Marie waved her sons off one by one (Image: John Gladwin)

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Marie Briggs has more reasons than most soldiers’ mums to shiver whenever there’s a knock on the door.

Six of her children have joined the Forces... and four of her sons are now out on the front line in Afghanistan.

Soldiering on: Marie with her band of army-loving children

Her daughter has already served in Iraq and her 16-year-old boy is in the Army Cadets, determined to follow in the footsteps of his band of brothers.

Marie, 46, has already had a taste of the nightmare that casts a shadow over military families when one of her sons was hurt by a Taliban roadside bomb.

But the brave mum told the Sunday Mirror yesterday: “You just have to get on with it and try not to think about what could happen.

“I can’t spend my days dreading the knock at the door because if I did that I’d start to crumble. But I must admit it is a constant worry.”

In fact, Marie, who has eight children of her own and three-stepchildren, says she takes a strange comfort from the knowledge that her boys in Helmand are all out there together.

Lance Corporals Matthew, 25, Albert, 23 and Privates Barry, 27, and Declanare all with the 3rd Battalion, The Rifles. Barry works as a Commanding Officer’s driver. Matthew and Albert lead men on patrols to push back insurgents and Declan is a rifleman.

Albert, 23: Three Rifles (Image: John Gladwin)

Matthew, 25: Three Rifles

“I waved them off one by one,” said Marie. “All four of them have been out there about three months.

“Thankfully they didn’t all go on the same day, and I was glad about that. That really would have beentoo tough. But it’s nice to know they are ­together, and can look out for each other.”

Proud Marie said: “Barry is ­actually my stepson although I think of him as one of my own. He’s the quiet one and doesn’t tell me anything he gets involved in... he doesn’t want to worry me.

“Matthew is a qualified dog handler while Albert is very gung-ho and has been in a few firefights already this tour, which is his third. Declan is a sharpshooter who has to respond to Taliban fire. He tells me, ‘Don’t worry Mum, I’ve got a big gun’.”

“But I don’t watch the news unless one of the kids say the Three Rifles have??been involved. I’d??be??in bits??if??I watched it????allthe???time. There have been too many killed and injured. I try to protect myself and my other children.”

The ring of the telephone also puts her on her guard. And she recalls how she answered it one day in October 2010 to discover that Albert, who helps clear IEDs, had been hurt in a blast.

“The phone rang and it was him,” said Marie. “He said, ‘Mum, I’m putting you on to the Colour Sergeant’.

Albert was out on patrol when his vehicle ran over an IED. He was treated at Camp Bastion and then flown back to Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham to recuperate.

Marie recalled: “When I saw him in that bed, I just wanted to cuddle him. He’d broken a bone in his foot and was badly bruised and battered.”

But when Marie looked around she realised Albert had been lucky.

“The wards were full of people who had terrible injuries. Albert still had his legs, so they put him in a side ward. But it was shocking. They were all so young, getting fitted with their artificial limbs.”

Two months later Albert’s best friend, rifleman Aidan Howell, was killed. “When Albert found out he said to me, ‘I just want to get back out there Mum’,” said Marie.

“He reckoned if he’d been there Aidan wouldn’t have been blown up. They all look after each other, and he blamed himself.”

Thomas, 16: Army Cadets (Image: Collect)

Declan, 18: Three Rifles (Image: John Gladwin)

Marie keeps the worry at bay by sending endless parcels out to her boys in Afghanistan.

“They hate me at the post office,” she laughed. “I send stuff all the time to my lads and their mates. They are always asking for biscuits.”

Back at home she at least knows her Army daughter Caroline is safe. The 26-year-old Lance Corporal is stationed at Catterick Barracks with the Adjutant General Corps.

Marie said: “Caroline has been to the Falklands and Iraq. She has a two-year-old boy now called Jake.

“She was supposed to be going to Afghanistan too, but she’s not going now and I must admit I’m pleased.”

Thomas, 16, is training with the Army Cadet Force in their home town of Darlington, Co Durham. Even her youngest son, 11-year-old Jack, has his eye on the Army.

Last man standing: Jack is only 11

“He says to me, ‘I want to be a soldier like my brothers, Mum’. And I say, ‘Let’s wait until you are a bit older’. There’s a part of me that hopes he doesn’t, but you can’t stand in their way.”

Five-times married Marie, now single, has her hands full with her big family, but still found time to get back into workplace courses with training company A4E.

She has a string of qualifications in health and social care and has now added a catering qualification, planning to use her new skills for a big party when her boys come home from Afghanistan next month.

“I’m looking forward to doing all the food,” she said. “It will be my way of showing how proud I am. And it will be lovely to have them all home.”